Motion-based analysis for construction workers using biomechanical methods

Abstract

Sustaining awkward postures and overexertion are common factors in construction industry that result in work-related injuries of workers. To address there safety and health issues, conventional observational methods on the external causes are tedious and subjective, while the direct measurement on the internal causes is intrusive leading to productivity reduction. Therefore, it is essential to construct an effective approach that maps the external and internal causes to realize the non-intrusive identification of safety and health risks. This research proposes a theoretical method to analyze the postures tracked by videos with biomechanical models. Through the biomechanical skeleton representation of human body, the workload and joint torques are rapidly and accurately evaluated based on the rotation angles of joints. The method is then demonstrated by two case studies about (1) plastering and (2) carrying. The experiment results illustrate the changing intramuscular torques across the construction activities in essence, validating the proposed approach to be effective in theory.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

biomechanical method / motion-based analysis / construction worker / muscular torques / workload

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RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2017 The Author (s) 2017. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)